Happy Endings
by Rianya
Summary: This is the beginning of the original alternate ending I worked on, before the second half of Season 5 came out. In many ways I like it better than God's Children. I thought I'd start sharing it. As always, reviews are appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

She felt sick and weak and nauseous but stumbled forward as if pulled by a magnet to the group of people standing by a seaplane floating in the still water. No, not the people, just the man – the man shaking as a dark cloud of tiny black shadows shot from his eyes. Him. She needed to reach him. Needed to…

No one noticed her until her hand latched onto his left wrist and they both collapsed to the ground to their knees. Now she shook as the black cloud eruption slowed, ended, and then the black in his eyes faded away.

"What...? What are you..?"

She ignored his question, focusing on the dark flame now flowing from him into her. It burned through her veins like fire but didn't consume. She could feel it trying to get a hold of her on a cellular level but she instinctively knew how to barricade herself against it. Focusing through the pain she forced the fire through her body, concentrating it in her left hand and then condensing it even more.

Her right hand was locked on his wrist so tightly that her fingers and knuckles were white and the other she held, palm down, and a black globe slowly oozed into being from her palm and dropped to the ground.

"What the hell!" The other man, tall and lean like the man she was now linked to started forward.

"No, wait!" The blond woman grabbed his arm, stopping his advance. "Look! She's pulling aether from him!"

"He's stopped exploding." The brunette noted more clinically and added with a certain detached practicality. "Someone should get a container for the aether."

She heard but barely registered the words; her world narrowed to the black fire she could feel pouring through her veins to concentrate in her left hand before pulling free with an exquisite pain. This is what she had to do. Nothing else existed but this purpose. Black balls dropped regularly from her hand to be collected by the two women and placed in a box hastily emptied out from the back of a yellow jeep.

"I think it's time for you to stop." The man turned her drooping head to face him an endless time later. "Let go now."

She swayed, trying to make sense of the words. Her nerves felt like they were on fire and her head buzzing and fuzzy at the same time. Her grip on his wrist loosened and her hand dropped limply into her lap. He caught her as she sagged, pulling her to him and cradling her to his chest.

"Now what?" It was the blond woman again.

"I –" The man shook his head as if a fly buzzed around it. He took a shaky breath as his own total exhaustion finally registered on him. "I don't know but I hope it involves a bed."

In spite of his sudden weakness he refused to allow his grip on the strange woman to relax. He told himself it was just that she had miraculously managed to pull troubles from him without killing him.

"Rest." She whispered wearily, raising a trembling hand to pat his cheek. "Must rest. But stay close." She wasn't sure how much of what she tried to say actually came out because darkness overtook her.

In that same moment Audrey's phone began ringing in the coat further down the road to the seaplane dock and Nathan's phone began ringing in his pocket.

"Dwight needs us." They said in unison finding it all too easy to envision the chaos that the multitude of troubles Duke had unleashed on Haven were causing.

"But what do we do with them?" She asked again.

"The hospital." Charlotte suggested. "They both need to be examined."

Duke tapped the strange woman gently on the cheek. She moved her head and began to breathe more deeply.

"Hey, wake up sleepyhead." He urged her softly. "Time to get moving."

"Just leave me here." She groaned, refusing to open her eyes.

Duke was surprised into a chuckle.

"Just a few steps, I promise. Then you can sleep on me the whole way to the hospital."

"This is the thanks I get?" She grumbled, opening dark green eyes. Duke's smile froze as he got caught up in her gaze. She seemed fascinated by him as well.

"Um, shall we go?" Nathan interrupted pointedly.

With Nathan's help she and Duke managed to stand. Once standing she made it to Nathan's bronco but she needed Duke's steadying hand the entire way. He watched her carefully. It wasn't easy to tell under her golden complexion but she was pale, with dark circles under her eyes and lips cracked with dehydration.

Duke climbed into the Bronco's backseat first, sliding over to sit behind the driver's seat. He steadied her when she climbed in and helped her fasten her seatbelt. Then she leaned her head on his shoulder with a sigh and closed her eyes again. He shifted until he got an arm behind her and held her to his side as the others climbed in and Nathan started the Bronco.

The drive to the hospital was exciting, to say the least, as troubles seemed to erupt all around them but Nathan used all of the skill he'd developed growing up in Haven to make very good speed into town, avoiding most of the chaos spawned by Duke's release of troubles. Duke's grip on the strange woman tightened with every sign of the outbreak of troubles that appeared along the way. An outbreak he felt horribly guilty about no matter how much he wanted to tell himself it was Mara's fault. He'd let her manipulate him and he wasn't sure if he'd ever get past that reality.

Dwight met them at the hospital and pointedly ignored Charlotte to focus on the stranger.

"Who is that?" He demanded quietly of the other man as Duke hovered over the orderlies transferring her to a gurney. "Where is Audrey? Why is Mara just standing next to you?"

"Mara's gone – forever, Dwight. This is Audrey." Nathan told him. "And I have no idea who this woman is but she – well it certainly looked like she pulled troubles out of Duke."

"And he lives…" Dwight considered the implications of that. "Think she can do it for others?"

"I don't know but it's certainly worth a try."

"Take them to the quarantine ward." Dwight told the officers converging on Duke and the stranger. "Keep a guard on them – neither of them leave."

"I should stay with them." The brunette declared with a fair amount of courage given the cold shoulder Dwight was giving her.

"Why?" He demanded suspiciously.

"Because she _did_ pull troubles out of Duke and if I can figure out how I might be able to help us." She answered steadily.

"And…?" He questioned suspiciously.

"Because she's one of us." She looked at Audrey and then back to Dwight.

Dwight's eyes narrowed in thought before he nodded.

"Allow Doctor Cross access to them – but they don't go anywhere." He amended his orders slightly.

Duke waved away a wheelchair and stumbled alongside the stretcher his mystery woman had ended up on, barely registering his surroundings but clinging to her hand. The medical personnel wheeling her into the hospital looked irritated at this breach of protocol but said nothing when Doctor Cross merely escorted them without a word.

The mystery woman was whisked to the very secure quarantine unit – possibly the most advanced in the country since Haven had a class of people to quarantine rarely seen elsewhere. Once there standard procedure took over except for the fact that Duke, slumped into a visitor's chair in the corner of the rather spacious room, was allowed to remain. After the stranger had been cut out of her clothing, carefully examined, and hooked up to a saline drip the room emptied. Even Charlotte left when Duke firmly refused the examination she wanted to give him. Duke moved his chair beside the stranger's bed and examined her as carefully as the fog of exhaustion numbing his mind would allow.

Like Charlotte she had fine features and dark hair, but her hair was a straight fall to her waist. She was pale but her complexion was darker than either Audrey or Charlotte. She didn't move or show signs of regaining consciousness and his head slowly drooped onto the bed beside her body as the events of the past few days caught up with him.

She awakened slowly, gradually registering the sound of voices echoing beyond a wall, the smell of disinfectant and the realization that she was attached to an IV dripping a saline solution into her veins. An arm was draped across her middle attached to the sleeping body of the man she had originally been attracted to. His head was on the bed beside her but the rest of him perched in a chair next to her hospital bed. Even unconscious his face bore the stamp of pain and anger.

The door to the room opened, drawing her attention to the glass windows that made up the walls.

 _No privacy here._ She thought sourly and then wondered why she cared.

"How are you feeling?"

It was the brunette woman. The woman in the bed looked at her curiously, feeling a familiarity but not actually recognizing her. Charlotte frowned at the lack of response.

"Do you know where you are?" She tried next.

"Hospital." The voice she answered with cracked with disuse, as if she'd been silent for quite a long time. The man sleeping on the bed opened his eyes, instantly alert. "Or research facility." She added, the words falling from her mouth before she realized she'd even thought them.

"What is your name?" The woman asked with a particular intensity.

She thought about it and nothing surfaced - nothing at all.

"Hey, calm down…" Duke gently parted her hands that she had clenched together so tightly that blood oozed from the IV in the back of her hand. "It's okay." His voice was soothing and his touch gave her a point of stability to cling to.

"I don't know." She told him instead of Charlotte. "Who am I?"

"Hush, hush…" He stroked long, dark hair back from her face – unfamiliar long, dark hair. "I don't know who you are but I'm here and I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

The hand without an IV clung to the hand that wasn't stroking her hair as she fought back tears of terror.

"Okay," Charlotte said briskly, but she heard the undercurrent of disappointment in the woman's voice, "let's start with what you remember."

"I woke up in a room. It had tools and things. I was on the floor. I opened the door and saw you and two blond women who looked like each other. You held the women and there was a burst of white light – it meant something… something really important but I don't know what."

She stopped, frowning as she tried to pull the significance from her mind, but gave up and continued her narrative a moment later.

"One of the blond women vanished in that white light, I think. And then the men showed up and you all talked. And then he –" She looked at Duke, "He needed me. I had to help him. That's all I know."

"Okay, that's a great start." The brunette smiled. "I'm Doctor Charlotte Cross, you can call me Charlotte. This is Duke. You're in Haven, in the hospital, and we're going to help you. You are exhausted and dehydrated and malnourished at the moment but all of that is easily remedied. I'm just going to order you a meal. I'll be back so relax and try not to worry."

Charlotte exited the room as abruptly as she had entered, leaving the two alone. The woman in the bed felt her attention drawn to the man by her bed like metal to a magnet. He had a strong face with a high forehead, brown eyes and a forceful chin fuzzed with a beard.

"Hello." He smiled but there was too much strain in it to convey pleasure.

Her thumb touched his lower lip gently. "I don't like it when you smile to hide pain." She told him seriously.

His eyes darkened with intensity and he leaned towards her slowly, almost as if he wasn't aware of it. Their lips met, sending a jolt of energy through her that made her think of the white light that had torn through her earlier. He drew back, drawing in a shaky breath.

"Sorry." He told her. "I don't know what came over me."

"Duke." She said, experimentally. Her head tilted as she considered him, a finger reaching out to touch the tanned skin of his cheek this time. For some reason she was drawn to be in physical contact with him. "It's a good name for you."

"Thank you?" He blinked in bemusement. He couldn't remember anyone ever evaluating the suitability of his name before.

"Um," He coughed slightly, trying to ease the tension that still pulled at them. "What should we call you?"

"I don't know."

"Jane?"

She shook her head.

"Eve?"

Her face must have shown her revulsion.

He snapped his fingers with an idea, "Mia!" He declared with enthusiasm. She smiled an acceptance. It was a good name.

"Okay, Mia," he smiled at her, this time a genuine smile that made her breath catch. She reached out again, tracing his lips with a feather light touch that wiped the smile from his face.

"Don't do that." He told her quietly, his eyes darkening with desire and something else. Her hand dropped onto the bed and she struggled to contain a sense of loss at his rejection.

"No." He brushed his fingers through the hair at her temples again. "Not rejection – I'm afraid if you keep touching me I'll…"

He leaned towards her again and again their lips met. She sighed into his mouth with contentment.

"This isn't wise." He pulled back.

"Why not?"

His eyes opened wide with shock at her response.

"Because you don't know me." He answered, his eyes narrowing and filling with self-disgust. Her fingers touched his lips again.

"I know you are trying to protect me." She answered with a sense of wonder. "And I know I feel safe with you."

He pulled back from her, coming to his feet to pace the length of the small room.

"You shouldn't." He told her roughly after a long silence. "I hurt people."

He looked like he would continue but the door opened and a terrified young woman brought in a tray of food which she placed on the bedside table. Then she collected a second tray from someone at the door, placed that on the table, and told the floor in a shaking voice that Doctor Cross wanted them both to eat before all but running from the room.

"Why is she afraid?" Mia asked curiously.

"Probably because of me." Duke answered bleakly. An explosion sounded in the distance and his expression closed in entirely.

Mia clamped down hard on the instinctive sympathy she felt, knowing it would only drive him further away.

"We should eat. We need the fuel." She said instead in tones of simple practicality.

He returned to the chair by her bed but only picked at his food.

"If you don't eat I won't either. If I don't eat I can't draw the poison from you." She finally told him, knowing he was still exhausted and drained. It didn't occur to her to wonder how she could know how he was feeling.

"Poison?"

"The black fire. I feel it in you and I want to remove it." She ate a bite of dry chicken and considered what she was feeling. "I _need_ to remove it." She amended. "So eat."

Startled, he took a bite of meatloaf, grimaced but swallowed it.

"I don't suppose you'd like to trade?" He asked hopefully. Mia laughed at the little-boy look on his face.

"Okay." She swapped the plates, finding the meatloaf more palatable than the chicken anyway. "Now tell me what I need to know."

"Like what?" He asked warily. The chicken was obviously not to his taste either but he continued to eat it in quick, neat bites.

"What is the black fire? What is wrong here? Why shouldn't I feel safe with you?"

"I'm not sure what the "black fire" is." He answered slowly, "But I think it might be troubles. And troubles are "what is wrong" here. And I already told you I hurt people."

"People hurt people – it's a fact of life." She observed. "Why do you think your "hurt" is worse?" Her tone was matter of fact, almost dry, which made it easier for him to answer.

"I keep trying to help but it always turns out worse. I've killed people. I caused…" He looked out the window where sounds of chaos were finally slowing down, "…that."

"I can see that it would be very hard to try and help and find that makes the problem worse but is that worse than not trying?" She wondered, almost to herself. "And if you caused this –" she gestured to the world outside the window, "you didn't do it purposefully. If you had desired this outcome you would be happy."

Duke frowned as he considered her words. He was pretty sure there was a flaw in the logic that led her to imply innocence – or at least suggest he bore no guilt for the disaster.

"And whether I should feel safe with you or not," Mia told him, her voice firming. "I do. I trust my instincts."

"Regardless, people I care about die – so we need to stay apart." Duke pushed away from the remains of his food and began to pace again. He didn't pause to wonder how he could so quickly lump Mia into the category of people he cared about.

Absently he rubbed his left wrist which was ringed with dark blue bruises.

"Did I do that?"

He glanced down, noticing the marks for the first time.

"Huh, I guess so. You've got quite a grip."

He smiled grimly, his dark gaze studying her face and she moved uneasily, restlessly, wanting his touch again.

" _Can_ you take out the rest?" He asked at last, his voice harsh with barely suppressed emotion.

Her hand grabbed his wrist again without conscious volition on her part and the black fire roared through her again before he wrenched his wrist away. She swayed and gagged at the rank flavor in her mouth.

"Not yet. You're too weak yet."

"I think I'll rest now." She agreed, closing her eyes. "Don't go."

Her hand reached out for him and after a moment she smiled with satisfaction as he took it, folding both of his hands around it.

"Don't go." She whispered again before slipping back to sleep.

Still tired, Duke pillowed his head on his arms and, still holding her hand, dozed.

When they woke again Mia felt much better. She sat up and swung her legs off of the side of the hospital bed. Duke was by her side in an instant.

"What are you doing?" He demanded, one hand coming to rest on her shoulder to keep her from standing up.

"I'm going to pee." She told him firmly. "I'd prefer to use the bathroom for that."

"Are you sure you should be standing?"

As touched as she was by his concern, two bags of saline solution were making themselves felt. She stood, instead of answering, and then grabbed at him as the sudden change of position caused the blood to rush from her head. A moment later she was steady again and she pushed away his supporting arm.

"I'm okay." She assured him, grabbing the IV stand and making her way to the door in the room that didn't lead to the hallway. "Push the call button for the nurse, would you? I want this IV out. I don't need it anymore."

Duke stood for a moment, torn between the need to make sure she was safe and the desire to get Charlotte back in the room to evaluate Mia's condition. Charlotte walked in before he'd done more than reach for the call button.

"So, she's up? Did she remember anything? Her name?"

"No." Duke answered shortly. "We chose Mia for now."

"Mia?" Charlotte smiled at the name. "Hmm… whose idea was that?"

Duke found himself blushing and wondered why.

"I see…" Charlotte's smile was speculative and Duke was wondering just what she thought she saw as Mia reappeared from the bathroom.

"I remember you." Mia said, watching Charlotte through the mirror as she washed her hands as thoroughly as possible without disturbing the IV in the back of her hand. "You were by the water and you were here when I woke up."

"Yes. Do you remember anything else?"

"You're Doctor Cross." Mia responded.

"Call me Charlotte."

"Okay, Charlotte. Call me Mia."

"Duke told me, Mia. It's an interesting choice."

Mia's head cocked at the unspoken meaning in Charlotte's words. She frowned slightly at Charlotte and then considered Duke, who fidgeted with increasing discomfort under her scrutiny.

"It's appropriate." Mia finally said, her gaze softening. She smiled at Duke. "I _am_ his."

The breath huffed out of Duke in shock at her words and he shook his head in confusion. Mia looked back at Charlotte.

"No. I don't remember yet." She told Charlotte. "But I'm sure I _will_ remember. You feel familiar. I think I like you. But I don't remember anything really – just feelings and impressions."

"Well you need to try and get it back, Mia." Charlotte responded bleakly. "The situation here is pretty grim. What you did this morning is – new. I need to know how you came to be able to do it at all."

"What the hell is going on?" Duke demanded with frustration.

"Mia is from my world, Duke." Charlotte told him. She was unsurprised that Duke hadn't heard her tell the others that before. He'd been completely focused on Mia at the time. "She's one of us."

"Well then tell her what she needs to know!"

"She needs to remember on her own and most of what she needs to remember I have no knowledge of." Charlotte answered gently.

"Shouldn't we get a second hospital bed here?" Mia changed the subject. "I mean, if Duke is going to stay with me?"

Duke looked disturbed by that notion.

"I doubt either of you will be here much longer." Charlotte observed. "I want you to eat again – whatever you did, Mia, required a lot of personal energy from the both of you. We need you to regain your strength as quickly as possible."

"If you want her to eat it would help if the food was palatable." Duke offered sourly.

"Hospital food lives up to its reputation?" Charlotte questioned. "I'll see what I can work out."

Dwight arrived as Charlotte was completing her second physical examination of Mia, followed shortly by Nathan and Audrey. Charlotte gave in to Mia's demand that she remove the IV. Then Mia sat on the edge of the bed, Duke standing beside her, and the others all found chairs or leaned against the window that revealed activity in the hallway.

"All right – what's going on?" Dwight asked as soon as everyone was settled. Nathan had pulled out a small notepad to take notes on.

"I feel a lot stronger now." Mia offered.

"Mia still has no memory prior to the events by the seaplane." Charlotte explained to the others. "However she has shown signs that her memory is not gone, merely suppressed. I am confident that she will regain them sooner rather than later."

"That's not very helpful." Dwight frowned. "What about her trouble? Pulling troubles from people without killing them?"

"I'm pulling aether from them, actually." Mia offered helpfully. "It's a very volatile substance that really shouldn't be placed in a living host."

Everyone but Charlotte looked surprised at that revelation.

"How do you do it without killing the person?" Charlotte asked with keen interest.

"I don't know. I _will_ the aether to leave Duke's blood and absorb it into my own and then I will it to exit my body through the pores as inert aether balls. I don't know if I do anything else. It doesn't feel like I do."

"How are you feeling, Duke?" Dwight asked next, less with concern for the man than with a desire for information about how the process affected the troubled person."

"Before this I felt like my skin was on too tight." Duke answered obliquely. "Now I feel like a pressure has been relieved – but I was really tired when we got here. I don't know if that was the trouble explosion I had or what Mia did or both together."

This time Dwight noticed the use of her name and looked at Charlotte interrogatively. "Mia?" He asked, the single syllable an accusation of dishonesty.

"She and Duke chose it for her today." Charlotte answered gently. Mia sensed that Charlotte was hurt by Dwight's suspicion but that she also seemed to feel she deserved it.

"You seem to know more about Mia than anyone." Dwight pressed. "Do you know who she is?"

"Yes." Charlotte answered. "I think I do."

"What do you mean, you think you do?"

"Mia didn't look like she does now when I knew her." Charlotte answered Dwight. "But she feels like the woman I knew."

"Feels?" Audrey and Nathan asked that question in unison.

"One of the differences between our people and yours is that our people have more of what you consider "psychic powers". Charlotte explained cautiously. "Audrey can help troubled people because she can not only sense what emotion is driving their trouble, but also because when she talks to them she can – " Charlotte paused, searching for the right word, "She can _push_ them to listen to her words, to accept them."

"That actually makes a lot of sense." Duke reflected out loud.

"Mia was very gifted psychically. She could alter memories, lock them away, or delete them entirely. She also had a very strong empathic ability much like Audrey has."

"You don't believe Mia still possesses these abilities?" Duke questioned.

"I don't know. It's very clear that she is still strongly empathic – she was drawn to Duke, in part, because she felt his need. But I haven't seen my friend for centuries. I'm not positive this is her, although she mostly _feels_ like her." Charlotte sighed with frustration at the difficulty in explaining herself to the others.

"Why haven't you seen her for centuries?"

"She disappeared when Mara was young – shortly after…" Charlotte broke off. "I always wondered if she came to this world."

Mia was listening intently, hoping for a breach in the wall around her memory and growing more and more convinced that she was getting closer to a breakthrough.

Dwight expelled a frustrated sigh.

"Just once it would be nice for something to be easy." He complained.

"Well, there are a few things we can try right now. Like, we know she can pull troubles out of Duke. Let's see if she can do it with someone else." Nathan suggested.

"But we have to be careful." Audrey noted. "We aren't immune to these new troubles." She indicated Charlotte and herself to define "we".

Audrey, Nathan and Dwight had learned the hard way that Audrey's immunity didn't extend to the new troubles Duke had released during the day of chaos they had endured while Mia and Duke recovered in the hospital. Fortunately, they had already suspected Audrey's lack of immunity before the crisis, so they had been careful.

"So start with someone with an original trouble." Mia suggested practically. "But I'd like some clothing, and a shower first, if that's possible?"

"But you look so fetching in your hospital gown." Duke murmured into her ear earning a pointed glare from Mia that almost brought a smile out of him.

"I know exactly who to bring in of the old troubles." Nathan declared. Audrey and I will get him."

"I'll get someone with the new troubles." Dwight offered.

"I'll get you some clothes and another meal."

"A decent meal, please." Duke urged. "Feel free to order something from the Gull. Do you like tiger shrimp, Mia?"

"I don't think so." Mia answered thoughtfully. "I don't think I like seafood at all. Does Haven have a good Thai place?"

"Thai? In a small fishing village in Maine?" Duke scoffed.

Charlotte grinned at Mia, shook her head, and left the room. Mia stood up resolutely, ignoring Duke's hastily aborted move to support her.

"I'm going to brush my teeth and shower." She announced. "I feel grimy."

"You could smell better." Duke teased gently. Mia smacked him lightly on the arm.

"Why was Charlotte grinning at you, do you think?" Duke wondered idly moving to look out the window while Mia scrubbed her teeth.

"I suspect her friend didn't like seafood so she's more convinced that I am that friend." Mia theorized around the toothbrush. "She feels familiar to me – I think she's right about my identity. I wish she'd just tell me." She rinsed her mouth and the toothbrush and then put some more toothpaste on it and started brushing again.

Duke kept his eyes firmly on the scenery outside in a rare display of chivalry as Mia stripped off her gown and walked into the bathroom utterly unselfconscious about her nudity. When the door closed behind her Duke pulled his cell from his pocket and made some calls.

When Mia emerged from the bathroom looking considerably more relaxed Duke had a meal waiting for her. His pleased expression triggered a memory, or vision, in Mia of a similar expression on a young boy with similar dark hair and brown eyes. She smiled at him with all the nostalgia that image brought to her.

"My, someone's been busy." She observed, allowing Duke to seat her in a chair by the window and roll the laden tray table before her. "How did you get all this together so quickly?"

"I know people." He said evasively.

"I see." Mia let that rest, sensing that Duke needed the air of mystery he cultivated for some indefinable reason.

Duke presented her with a freshly made tomato soup first, served with a roll still hot from the oven. Her second course was a grilled, herbed chicken breast with steamed zucchini – a dish which Mia greeted with a groan of pleasure. Finally he cleared the dishes to the small counter and set a slice of blueberry pie topped with fresh whipped cream. Mia hadn't finished any of the dishes, lacking the stomach capacity, but she managed a few bites of the pie as well.

"If you keep feeding me like this I'm going to end up looking like an ancient fertility goddess." She told him as she pushed away the food.

"Oh, I imagine you'll burn it all off removing troubles from people if I know Dwight and Nathan." Duke assured her, picking up her leftover pie and asking her, with nothing more than a hopeful expression, if he could finish it. Mia nodded indulgently and Duke rolled his eyes in delight at the first bite.

"Rosemary really does make the best baked goods in Haven." He muttered.

"She should, I gave her grandmother half of those recipes." Mia told him with a chuckle.

"What?" Duke paused in mid-chew.

Mia froze, her eyes widening as that small memory shattered the damn blocking her mind and centuries of memories flooded her.

"Oh!" She breathed, one hand coming up to press against her lips. Duke watched her in fascination, pie forgotten, as emotions flickered across her face while she absorbed and sorted and categorized the cascade of information. "Oh my…"

"What?" He prompted when the flickering expressions ceased and she seemed frozen in thought.

"Well, that put's a wrinkle on things – damn her!" Mia muttered to herself not even hearing Duke.

"Mia, talk to me." He said, putting the pie plate down with the other leftovers and coming back to take her hands and kneel before her. "What's going on?" 

Both of them ignored the sound of the door opening and people entering the room. Charlotte was clearly in with the group because she shushed everyone and managed to get them to obey.

Mia suddenly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes, gave Duke's hands a squeeze and gave him a pained smile.

"Well, I remember now." She told him. "But I believe Charlotte has brought me something to wear and I think most in this room would appreciate it if I were wearing a little more than a towel."

Mia went to Charlotte, took the cloth bag her friend offered her and gave her friend a reassuring smile.

"Yes, I'm back." She repeated before she disappeared into the bathroom.

She emerged shortly dressed in a calf length green wool skirt with a beige long-sleeved knit shirt and a green vest that matched her skirt and came down to mid thigh on her. Brown half boots and ivory knee high socks completed her ensemble. She was pulling a brush through her long hair.

"Thank you." She told Charlotte. "These are perfect."

"I'm glad I remembered." Charlotte replied. "It's been a while."

"Okay, what the hell is going on _now_?" Dwight demanded.

Audrey and Nathan were leaning against the window to the room, just watching and several people stood in the hallway.

"Chief Hendricks." Mia said, looking at Dwight. "I remember."

"Okay. What do you remember?" Dwight asked hopefully.

"Everything." Mia told him. He sighed with frustration wondering why he had ever thought he'd like to be chief of police in Haven. Mia smiled briefly at his expression.

"Let's conduct your experiments first. Then we can discuss my memories."

Dwight nodded and gestured to Nathan to bring in the first subject. He called Bobby Mueller, now a senior in High School, into the room. His face was drawn and dark circles under his eyes made his lack of sleep clear. His foster mother, Hannah Driscoll recoiled when she saw Duke.

"What?! No!" She tried to push Bobby behind her.

"Hannah, no." Nathan assured her. "Duke's just observing. Mia here is the one who is going to try and help Bobby – and it has nothing to do with anyone dying."

Hannah relaxed some but continued to watch Duke suspiciously. Mia glanced at him with concern, feeling the hurt Hannah's reaction sparked.

"I'm used to it." Duke assured her, moving off to lean in the corner and watch with a slight frown.

Mia reached for Bobby's hand and Duke moved.

"Wait." He said calmly, moving slowly so as not to spook Hannah any further. "Try it here." He told Mia, moving her hand to rest on Bobby's neck.

He caught Mia's gaze and elaborated. "You said it was in my blood – the veins are larger here."

He backed off again and Mia composed herself with a deep breath and then began to pull at the sparks of darkness scattered through Bobby. There wasn't as much but it was both more spread out and more ingrained. Mia was shaking when she finally expelled the aether ball from her other hand. Duke was at her side where he had been hovering and caught her as her knees gave way.

"Old, established, hard to pull out." She whispered, closing her eyes wearily. "I'll be okay."

She opened her eyes briefly and looked at Bobby. "You're okay." She assured him. "No more trouble – you can sleep now."

Bobby and Hannah hugged with joy and Hannah quickly escorted him from the hospital room.

"Well that wasn't promising." Nathan mentioned to Audrey as Dwight headed for the door.

"It worked." Audrey pointed out. "That's promising."

"Yes," Nathan agreed, "But look how exhausted she is."

"I'm okay." Mia countered, straightening up to stand under her own power again.

"You need to rest before you try that again." Duke frowned.

"I'm not going to be silly, Duke." She tried to reassure him. "Yes, it was hard but I've got enough energy for one more experiment."

"So what is the plan now, Dwight?" Duke asked warily.

"Kevin Callister has a controllable trouble." Dwight explained. "He "loses" things. If he doesn't like something he touches it vanishes – for good as far as I can tell. He doesn't have any reason to dislike Mia so she should be able to safely touch him and draw his trouble out if it's possible for her to affect these new troubles. Especially since one of the things he "lost" was his wife and newborn daughter when the new troubles hit today."

Duke frowned fiercely. Mia put a gentle hand on his face and turned it towards her.

"You aren't my protector, Duke Crocker." She told him firmly. "It's not your job to keep me safe. I make my own choices and I _will_ try to help Mr. Callister."

Duke's frown intensified, his lips tightening with frustration. The door opened and Jason entered with a young man.

"Here he is, Chief." Jason told Dwight. "Sunni is on her way."

"What's going on?" Kevin Callister asked warily.

"I promised I'd do everything in my power to get your wife and baby back, remember? Well this lady might be able to do that. All she needs to do is touch your neck." Dwight answered soothingly. "You want to try?"

"Yes!" Tears stood in the man's eyes as he made his way to Mia. "Do it. Do whatever you have to do."

"Okay, Kevin." Mia smiled gently. "Just relax."

She put her hand on his neck and reached – the black was fresher, more of a sullen ember than a spark, but easier to pull than before. It hadn't had generations to embed itself into his genetic makeup. The extraction process was far easier this time.

A black aether ball dropped from her hand and she moved back from Kevin.

"The trouble is gone." She told them.

"Where are Carolyn and Suzy?" He wanted to know.

"I hope they returned to where they vanished."

Mr. Callister hurried off with an officer.

"That one was easier." She assured Duke. "It wasn't as much a part of him as the other."

"The older troubles are generations old." Charlotte mused. "They've been passed on from parent to child for hundreds of years. They must be more integrated into their hosts."

"Yes, that's what it feels like." Mia agreed.

"Okay, one last test." Dwight rubbed his hands together in a nervous gesture.

"What?" Duke was looking wary again and Mia fought the impulse to stomp on his foot. Somehow she was going to have to nip his protectiveness in the bud. But then she realized that it was only recently that he had lost the woman he loved and that he still blamed himself for bringing her to Haven in the first place.

"Some of the worst troubles are touch based. But Mia seems to need to touch people to pull the troubles out of them."

"Which would be bad with a touch trouble." Duke pointed out.

"But she can touch you and you're immune to these troubles. What if she can use you as a conduit?" Dwight asked pointedly. 

Mia considered the suggestion.

"It might very well work, Duke." She decided. "It's not going to hurt anything to try."

Duke looked less than pleased but couldn't really find a reason to disagree.

"Are you up for another session?" He finally asked her. "Bobby's trouble seemed to exhaust you."

"I'm good, Duke." She smiled at him. "Stop mother-henning me."

"Sunni's here." The guard at the door announced before ushering in the young woman.

Sunni was covered in a fireproof blanket – the kind firefighters took with them when battling wildfires.

"So, obviously a heat related trouble."

"Virtually everything that touches her skin either bursts into flame or crumbles to ash instantly." Dwight explained grimly. "Sunni, Duke's going to put his hand on your neck – you won't hurt him –"

"Too bad." She said spitefully.

"But if this works," Dwight continued firmly, "your trouble will be gone, okay?"

"Do it." She agreed instantly. Her grip on the blanket loosened and she lifted her chin to provide access to her throat.

Duke took a calming breath and placed his hand on her throat – Mia considered him for a minute before standing behind him and reaching around him to place her hand on the side of his throat over an artery. Then she took a deep breath of her own and concentrated. Duke jerked as what Mia described as "black fire" penetrated his hand and moved through his arm to his heart to the vein under Mia's hand. He locked his knees against the pain and modulated his breathing, drawing on his yoga techniques to remain calm and receptive. He could feel Mia trembling against him.

Finally Sunni gasped and stumbled back, falling. Dwight grabbed at her instinctively but blanket dropped from around her as she fell. Dwight tensed in anticipation of flames that didn't come. Sunni looked at him with horror that changed to amazement as nothing happened. Then she burst into tears of relief.

Charlotte pulled a hospital gown out of a cupboard and draped it around Sunni as her clothes had burned off her when her trouble manifested and she'd been naked under the fire-proof blanket.

"Come on; let's get you out of here." She murmured soothingly as she led the still weeping woman out of the room.

"So that works." Dwight sighed with satisfaction.

"Barely." Nathan opined with a pointed look at Duke and Mia clinging to each other in exhaustion. "If only we had a way to cure everyone at once…"

Charlotte returned and carefully gathered the aether balls into a specimen jar.

"Okay, you've put this off long enough – talk to us." Dwight demanded firmly, ignoring Mia's clear exhaustion. Duke bristled but Mia stifled whatever he planned to say with a gentle squeeze of the hand he had around her waist.

"I did promise." She murmured to Duke.

"Okay, here it is. Croatoan is my brother." She stated baldly.

Nathan had his gun trained on her in a heartbeat.

"No, you can't hold me hostage – he hates me as much as he hates anyone. I helped Charlotte turn him in to our people for his ethical violations." She told Nathan. "And no," she looked at Duke grimly. "I am _not_ working with him. I've been trying to figure out how to stop him ever since he was banished. I know my brother, you see – or I did – he's never been one to let go of a grudge." 

"Okay, everyone stand down." Dwight pushed down Nathan's gun, giving Nathan a "Are you crazy? Do you _want_ to shoot me?" glare.

"Start at the beginning." He ordered Mia. Mia smiled wryly.

"The beginning is almost six hundred years ago, when Charlotte and my brother were just starting to explore the Void." She began with a touch of humor.

"Is this relevant to today?" Dwight wanted to know.

"Oh yes." Mia assured him. "Charlotte and my brother were young, by our standards, and very ambitious. My brother was sure that the aether in the Void was going to allow him to make amazing breakthroughs in biology and genetics and possibly even to jump start evolution entirely. Our people had known about aether for centuries but after a couple of early tragedies aether research was forbidden and the Void was avoided except for exploring parties seeking thinnies. Your world had been discovered shortly before their foray into aether research. I've always suspected that was the trigger that sent my brother into the Void – jealousy that someone else got recognition while he was still struggling. "

Charlotte nodded, sorrow, guilt and unhappy memories etched on her face.

"They didn't realize it but they were damaged by their aether exposure. During their research you were conceived, Audrey. I've often suspected you were conceived in the Void itself."

Charlotte nodded again, tears shining in her eyes.

"The damage in them was minimal and our medical technology kept them healthy but in you, Audrey, it was lethal. You developed a virulent cancer as a child that should have killed you, but your father realized that it might be aether poisoning and he managed to use aether to heal you. He actually melded it to you on a genetic level, although he could never repeat the feat with another being from either of our worlds."

"Charlotte was unaware of his research with live subjects. She had left your father at that point. Your illness and their suspicion that it was caused by their research in the Void drove them apart. When your mother discovered what he had done –"

"He told me, Dove." Charlotte said to Audrey. "He told me of the people he killed in his experiments to save you."

"— she informed the authorities and your father was banished to the Void. You were still a child, just beginning to recover from your illness. What the others didn't know was that your father was suffering a psychological breakdown from the aether exposure. I knew but he'd been banished at that point so what could I do? I watched over Mara and kept an ear out for any unusual occurrences that might be my brother's actions."

"Which you found." Duke guessed.

"My brother figured out how to open a thinnie to our world – he started visiting Mara. He knew I was watching, though, and he caught me before I could warn Charlotte. He dragged me to the Void. He was going to experiment on me – he started to experiment on me – but I got away while he was off collecting aether or visiting you, Audrey, or something. I didn't dare return to our world so I followed him to this one. I saw him destroy the Roanoke Colony."

"But he didn't see you?" Audrey asked.

"No. I was very sick at that time. He did something to me before I got away, I think, but I never knew what. I just ran from the horror of the destruction of the colony and I kept going until I passed out. When I came to I was in the camp of an Ojibwa tribe and I looked like I do now. I was ill for a very long time and when I finally recovered – well, when I recovered I had become attached to one of the men who had found and rescued me. We had a small family and I was very happy until the day I had to leave because my everlasting youth had become noticeable."

"What did you do then?" Nathan asked. Everyone was enthralled by her story.

"I began travelling. I had collected quite a store of native remedies and was able to make my way all the way up here by trading my herbs and knowledge along the way. When I got here to Tuwiuwok the Mi'kmaq were just beginning to form the core of Haven. They were gathering in the troubled. I spent many happy years here where my "youth trouble" was accepted, even though it meant I had to be quite reclusive to avoid both my brother and Mara's notice when they began to meddle. I helped the Teague family to settle in here and form the guard and start learning how to deal with the troubles."

"But something happened." Duke guessed.

"Oh yes." Mia agreed. "My brother caught wind of an eternally youthful woman and I had to vanish. I spent the next two centuries travelling this continent, although I checked on Haven often. I knew when Mara was put in the barn – a plan I could have told you was doomed to failure, Charlotte, but our paths never crossed. I eventually returned to Haven and I studied the troubles even as I avoided people. I began to hope my brother thought me dead."

"You're Widow Jensen!" Dwight and Nathan said simultaneously.

"Guilty." Mia admitted. "And I was her mother and grandmother and great grandmother too. Fortunately I had learned about makeup and was able to appear horribly disfigured to explain my many selves' reclusive tendencies."

"So how did you end up at the seaplane docks with no memory?" Dwight wanted to know.

"Mara." Mia said simply. "When she was on her thinnie scavenger hunt she found me. She thought I had closed the thinnies at first but even when she knew I hadn't she kept me captive. She took blood from me and left. I was fortunate that she left me a supply of food and access to water because she vanished after the first few days. I still ran out of food long before she returned. When she finally came back it was to inject me with someone's blood."

"Mine?" Duke wondered.

"I believe so. It was infused with aether and the shock – well I think it nearly killed me."

"What purpose could that serve?" Audrey wondered.

"I think she was testing to see if Duke had mutated to be able to give people from our world troubles. That was her plan – her father's plan really, but she adopted it."

"And I _am_ able to affect you." Duke observed grimly.

"I am now troubled but it's a useful trouble." Mia agreed. "What I don't think Mara expected, though, was that I too am something new because I can affect Duke. He isn't immune to me."

"So, where does that leave us?" Dwight asked practically, focused on the primary issue of survival.

"My brother is here now." Mia told them. Charlotte gasped in dismay, her eyes wide and her hands over her mouth as she shook her head from side to side in denial. "He has no physical form so he is attached to one of your people. We need to figure out how to deal with the troubles and aether on your world once and for all – it's the only hope we have of defeating him."

"What does he want with us? Did he make that shroud that has us all trapped?" Audrey asked, not to confuse the issue but because these were important aspects to the overall problem.

"He wants power from you." Mia told her and Charlotte nodded her agreement. "Troubles are power in the right hands. And he wants Duke to collect troubles and give them at his direction. He wants Audrey to create and give troubles as well."

"What about you and Charlotte?" Dwight asked, concern edging out the pain of Charlotte's deceptions.

"Oh, he wants us dead." Mia told him with a wry twist to her lips. Once again Charlotte nodded and it was clear she was frightened.

"The years I've spent on this planet haven't been wasted. I've been studying the troubled. Charlotte and I should return to my home and perhaps together we can devise a solution to the troubles."

"The barn." Charlotte offered. "I created it to pull the troubles from every person on this world if Mara ever demonstrated she could not be redeemed."

"What?!" That came from every earthling in the room.

"If one of Mara's overlay personalities killed the person they loved the most then the barn would have drawn all the aether on this planet back to the Void forever." Charlotte explained.

"And the people?" Mia asked shrewdly. As far as she knew she was the only being that had ever removed aether from a living host without killing it.

"… would have all died." Charlotte admitted with more than a little shame.

"Aren't we glad I refused to kill you, Nathan?" Audrey asked her partner pointedly. Nathan shrugged but nodded too.

"But if I study you, Mia," Charlotte said, breaking the brief silence that fell, "perhaps I could adjust the programming of the barn to draw the aether safely from the living host."

"There's a problem with this plan." Duke pointed out dryly. "The barn was destroyed."

"It can be rebuilt." Charlotte told them. "We need an aether core and it would be considerably easier if we could recover the control crystal, but it can be rebuilt."

"So, break this down into its components." Dwight said, thinking aloud. "Charlotte and Mia research the programming issues. Someone has to find an aether core. And someone has to find the control crystal."

"The aether core must be created and ideally it would be created by Audrey." Charlotte clarified. "Mara created these troubles and they are connected to her on their most fundamental level. And Audrey's ability to love catalyzes the aether – it becomes amazingly powerful. I honestly believe her love is greater than Mara's ever could have been because she is not tainted by the damage the aether did Mara as a child – she's healed from that."

"So what does Audrey need to create an aether core?" Dwight wanted to know.

"Aether." Charlotte and Mia answered together.

"And we're back at square one because the thinnies are sealed and the aether is in the Void." Dwight sighed with frustration.

"We could find William's stash." Nathan suggested.

The room perked up at that suggestion.

"Mia and Charlotte, research. Dwight and Duke, you two work together to keep the troubles under control. Audrey and I will find William's stash." Nathan recommended.

"When you do," Charlotte told them, "don't do anything with it – come get me. Audrey will need to be guided through her first interactions with aether."

"Fine." Nathan agreed.

Dwight left the room at that point to give instructions to the Guard. Audrey and Nathan left to set up their office at the station to organize their aether search. Charlotte excused herself and went after Dwight. Mia smiled, having sensed the tension between the two.

"I'm guessing she won't be back any time soon." Duke said looking from the two speaking earnestly in the hall to Mia's smile.

"Not if Charlotte has her way." Mia agreed. "I'm so happy for her."

"I'm kind of glad about that." Duke said. "Because I wanted to talk to you alone."

"Yes, I wanted to talk to you too. Is there a reason why we cannot go to my home?"

"None that I can see." Duke told her. "Let's just tell Dwight."

However Dwight had objections, the main one being that right now the majority of Haven wanted nothing more than Duke's head on a platter.

"You stick with me, Duke." Dwight ordered him. "At least until people realize you didn't do this on purpose. Stan can take you and Charlotte to your place." He finished to Mia. Mia shrugged and bowed to necessity.

"Be safe, Duke." She told him earnestly. "They might not realize it but we need you to defeat my brother."

"No one needs me." Duke replied, sinking into guilt and despair. "All I do is hurt people."

Mia touched him and there was a spark of connection between them similar to what Audrey and Nathan experienced.

"I need you." She countered gently. "And Haven needs you. Don't give in to despair."


	2. Chapter 2

Happy Endings

CHAPTER TWO

"How safe is your home, do you think?" Charlotte asked Mia as Stan drove them along a dark, wooded lane. The drive was a long one – Mia lived as far from Haven as she could and still be in the vicinity. She wasn't sure if her home was even on the right side of the shroud of fog that now encircled Haven.

"I don't think he knows about it." Mia told Charlotte and they both knew which "he" she meant. "Mara found me in Haven. I hadn't worn my disguise because no one in this generation in Haven had ever seen me. I was playing tourist."

"Do you really think we can defeat him?" Charlotte asked fearfully. "Sometimes I feel like I've been fighting his ego forever."

"These people are strong, Charlotte." Mia told her friend. "I've watched them and lived with them through so many generations. They support each other and they fight for each other and most of all, they endure. My bet is on them. And your Audrey is no small advantage. It's like you've got Mara back from before she was ill."

"It is." Charlotte agreed with trembling lips. "Except that she doesn't know me anymore."

"There's room for you in her heart." Mia assured her. "I can feel it. She _wants_ to love you and she wants your love. Give her time."

"Heh," Charlotte managed a misty smile, "it's not like I'm going anywhere."

Stan pulled up before a sturdy stone house. The back wall of the house actually touched the fog but Mia could tell that her home was accessible to them.

"Thank you, Stan." She told him. "We'll be okay now. I hope I get to see you soon."

"You two just get this trouble thing figured out, okay? We're counting on you." Stan replied.

"That's the goal." Mia assured him before heading into her home.

"Okay, Charlotte, do you want anything before we get started? Coffee, tea, wine?" Mia grinned wickedly. "I don't have any _tycilun_ but maybe I could whip up an approximation."

Charlotte groaned. "Why do you always bring that up?" She complained.

"Because it's funny." Mia laughed and went into her kitchen and turned on a kettle. "I have several teas. Pick whatever you like."

A short while later Mia led Charlotte down the stairs through a door in her kitchen to the basement of the home. The basement was stone and concrete but it had excellent lighting. Mia paused to start a fire in the fireplace that was along the back wall of the main room. It began warming the room but also just made the place seem cozier.

"These are my journals." Mia told her friend, leading her to a simple wooden bookcase along the back wall. "The blue ones are all about every trouble I've ever seen or heard of. The red ones are my experiment notes. This white one has my very few theories or ideas for experiments. I'm not sure any of it will be helpful, though. If I had a trouble when I did this work I certainly didn't know it."

Charlotte had brought her "go bag" with her and she pulled her notebook out of it.

"Let's start with what Mara did to you. What exactly did she do and what happened?"

"Well, she "arrested" me and since she had a gun I wasn't going to argue. Then she took me to a warehouse – to some kind of storeroom in the middle of it. She –" Mia shuddered slightly at the memories, "she tried to convince me to open the thinnies – but I hadn't sealed them."

"That was me." Charlotte confessed guiltily. "I couldn't let her go back into the void."

"I understand. You were right about that. She was completely out of control." Mia agreed. "Well, when she finally accepted that I wasn't able to open the thinnies she tazed me and then chained me around my waist to a metal pipe overhead. She had a chemical toilet in the room and a few MREs. And there was a spigot for water. Then she told me she'd wasted enough time on me and that she'd be back later and she left."

"And she didn't come back."

"Not for two weeks." Mia confirmed.

"She'd been captured."

"I assumed that." Mia smiled wryly at her friend. "Remember, I know about these people, even though they don't know me. I'd been rationing the MREs since she left. But your daughter made sure there was nothing I could use to pick the lock on the chain and that pipe was solid as bedrock. I was stuck until she came back and injected me with – well I'm pretty certain it was Duke's blood."

"Describe how that felt."

"It felt like acid in my veins." Mia answered, a frown of remembered agony etching lines in forehead. "I felt like I was being invaded on a cellular level. I blacked out pretty quickly and when I came to…"

"You were by the seaplane."

"Yes. And here we are now."

"Do you think Mara actually gave you this trouble you have? Or did you create it from the aether in that blood?"

"Honestly, Charlotte, I just don't know. I felt a pull towards Duke the moment I regained consciousness. Part of that is simply biology, as you well know."

"I'm kind of amazed its has happened with an otherworld person."

"I've had a few families over the centuries I've been here. A surprising number of my children have married into the Crocker line. He's got more than a little of our blood running through those veins." Mia explained.

"That explains how he can absorb and expel aether and give troubles."

"But the other draw, Charlotte, was the aether in him. I think Mara intended for me to have no choice but to take in troubles. She was collecting them for her father, I'm sure of it. I just want to know why she didn't know he is already here."

"So how is it that you aren't drawing troubles and life from every person you encounter?" Charlotte pressed her.

"Mara may be gifted and tuned to aether but I've got willpower she never had a chance to develop." Mia answered. "I was determined to survive and defeat my brother. Somehow this trouble of mine will make that possible, although I'll confess I'm not quite sure how."

"Intent is the crucial factor in creating a trouble." Charlotte nodded her understanding.

"Does that help you?" Mia asked. "Can you use my trouble to work out a construct that will safely remove aether from these people?"

"I think it does." Charlotte told her, jotting down notes. "But I'm going to need to do some research. I'm going to need to go back to the hospital and my lab there soon."

"I suppose we could call Stan for a ride again."

"So you don't have a car?"

"It's in Haven where I parked it. And it's not registered to Widow Jensen. Being a hideously disfigured recluse has its drawbacks."

"How many personas have you juggled?"

"Not as many as you inflicted on your daughter – what _were_ you thinking?"

Tears sparkled in Charlotte's eyes.

"It was the only thing I could think of that would satisfy the Council's determination to punish her and still keep her from her father's exile. I was trying to save her but…"

"Well, it produced Audrey." Mia noted. "And she's pretty amazing."

"She is, isn't she?" Charlotte smiled again, a mixture of pride and sorrow and wonder all wrapped together. She finished her notes and replaced the notebook in her go bag and the two women headed back upstairs.

"How about a tour?" Charlotte asked, glancing down at her friend as they emerged into the kitchen. She never saw the person standing behind the door. She was knocked unconscious with a single blow to her head. Mia surged forward, placing herself between her friend and the attacker.

"Leave her alone!" She demanded with considerably more courage than sense. "You don't want her right now anyway."

"You are so right about that." Her brother told her in a voice rich with menace and malice. "It's you I've come for. I can deal with her later."

"Just leave her alone." Mia repeated. "She's trapped on this world with all your other victims. Haven't you done enough?"

"She killed my daughter." He answered, kicking the unconscious woman viciously although the brunt of the kick was taken by Mia who intercepted the blow. Her brother leveled the gun he held on her and Mia braced for a bullet.

"Oh no," he said silkily, "I'm not going to kill you – not yet anyway. You have an ability I want to make use of."

He waved his gun towards the door and Mia obeyed the unspoken order, her heart heavy with fear and resignation.

"How did you find me?" Mia asked.

"Once I knew you were alive it was easy. I have that girl's trouble now. I took it in the lighthouse. It's very useful having a connection to anyone who has ever been in the Void."

" _You_ killed her!"

"Of course I did – I needed her trouble and I needed Duke Crocker vulnerable. I didn't expect Mara to capitalize on his weakness too but that clever girl picked right up on it. I can't tell you how proud she's made me."

Mia looked at him, horrified even though she wasn't surprised by his callousness.

"She was an innocent."

"She could have opened the door to send me back to the Void." Croatoan snarled. "And her trouble is useful to me, as I've already said."

Mia slid into the vehicle and, following Croaotan's instructions, handcuffed her wrists with the short chain of the cuffs going through the door handle on the passenger side. She spared a moment to hope they didn't crash for any reason because she'd probably lose her hands if they did.

"What is it you want?" She asked her brother as he started driving. "Why do you hurt these people?"

"These creatures don't matter." Croatoan told her casually. "They're merely useful test subjects."

Mia waited patiently for him to elaborate and after a few moments he continued.  
"I want what I've always wanted." He said finally, resentment and bitterness threading his voice. "I want them to realize my genius. With what my Dove did to the Crocker boy I'll be able to achieve that. I just have to get my girl back and then…"

"Mara's gone, Cal." Mia said gently.

"I know." He answered shortly, rage flaring from him like a solar flare. "You're lucky you had nothing to do with that."

"I was – incapacitated at the time." Mia said carefully.

They pulled up before a yellow farmhouse on a bluff overlooking the sea. It wasn't very far from Mia's home, which disturbed Mia more than it probably should have.

"But I will win her back." He declared grandly.

"Audrey isn't Mara." Mia pointed out, again with gentleness. Not only was she sympathetic to her brother's very real grief, but she was also concerned that she was going to push him into a destructive rage. 

"I know that!" He replied heatedly. "I'll have to show her how much I love her."

"Well that's going to be hard to do if you're busy torturing her friends." Mia finally snapped. "Audrey loves these people and she loves this town – and they love her back."

He handed her the keys to her handcuffs and stepped back, covering her with his gun while she freed herself from the cuffs.

"In the front door, straight back to the kitchen, then down the stairs to the basement." He ordered her tersely. Concerned that her bluntness had pushed him too far, Mia obeyed in silence. As soon as she was through the door to the basement – a solid metal and heavy wood door – he slammed it shut and locked it.

"This is a variation of a panic room." He said through the door. "You'll be fine as long as you remain in the rooms down there. There's plenty of food and unlimited access to water. If you show you can obey and make yourself useful, I might even let you live. Audrey isn't the only person I might want to coax into cooperation. So don't give me a reason to kill you, right? Oh, and if you force these doors or a window, the house will blow."

Mia felt her brother's presence leave the vicinity and cursed his parentage, upbringing, and personal hygiene habits in seven different languages.

"I am _so_ bloody tired of being a captive!" she finished, her nostrils white around the edges as she struggled with rage, a sense of helplessness and terror for the people she loved – with Duke being right there at the top of that list. 

Once she'd vented the worst of her emotions she examined her new prison. Her brother had been remarkably generous. She had a "living room" right off of the stairs. It came equipped with a pair of recliners and bookshelves loaded with reading material. She recognized some of her favorite authors from both worlds on the shelves and shuddered uneasily. Her brother had been rummaging around in her mind.

Two doors on one wall opened up on a bedroom and bathroom respectively. The door on the far wall opened into a small kitchenette with laundry facilities. Mia's unease grew. It wasn't like her brother to be kind to those he felt had betrayed him. Why was he making her captivity so comfortable?

" _You're right."_ Her brother whispered in her mind. _"Audrey isn't going to be happy if I'm torturing her friends. So I'm giving you an opportunity to please me and earn your life. More than that, I'm giving you an opportunity to stick around and comfort Duke – you'd like that, wouldn't you?"_

"Get out of my head!" she shouted, knowing she had no power to enforce her wishes. Her brother laughed but the laughter faded away as he turned his attention to other matters.

Mai went to the bedroom and laid herself down on the bed. Cautiously she stretched her awareness along the tie between herself and Duke. He was furious and she knew that they knew she was gone.

"— the hell did this happen?" Mia "tuned in" in mid tirade.

"I don't know." Charlotte sighed, holding a cold pack to the lump on the back of her head. "She said he didn't know about her house – but he obviously found out somehow." Tears filled Charlotte's eyes. "She's dead by now."

"No." Duke said, his anger subsiding slightly. "No, she isn't. I can sense her. She's okay – not hurt, a little afraid but not in pain either."

Charlotte paled.

"That's almost worse." She whispered through lips gone numb with fear. "That means he has a purpose for her."

Mia began to withdraw, knowing that Charlotte was right and afraid that the purpose her brother had in mind was going to be detrimental to Duke.

"Don't go." He called out, feeling her retreating.

 _"Duke, he wants to use me against you in some way."_ She warned him silently. _"No matter what happens, don't let him. Please."_

"She's gone."

Mia heard his words faintly as she returned her awareness to her immediate vicinity. She could feel his frustration and ached because she was the cause of it but she was convinced that the more she severed her connection with Duke the better off he'd be. And she needed to focus on barricading her mind against her brother. She ignored the amusement that her brother sent through his link to her at that thought and set to work. She'd always been his superior in the mental gifts…

Back at the police station Duke was explaining himself to the others.

"No, she isn't dead – I'd feel that. But she was _closer_ to me for a few minutes and now she's pulled away. She's trying to block this connection she has to me."

"She's afraid he'll use it against you, Duke." Charlotte said sadly, "and she's right."

"So what do we do now? We can't let him keep her." Duke could hear the frustration and sense of powerlessness in his voice. He hated it but he couldn't keep it out.

"There's a bigger issue here." Dwight pointed out. "And that's _you_ , Duke. Croatoan has two real targets right now – you and Audrey. How do we keep you two from him?"

"We get them out of Haven." Nathan said unhappily.

"No, I can't go. I have to stay here and help…" Audrey protested automatically.

"You have to. If you go with Duke you should be able to penetrate the shroud. I doubt Croatoan's influences reaches past it. Then we can focus on helping Charlotte get a new barn up and running."

"We need Audrey to create the new barn, though." Dwight pointed out.

"We need Audrey to create an aether core but there's no reason for her to be here until we have the aether to do so." Charlotte countered. "Her father has a plan for her and we don't want him to implement it, whatever it is."

"I'm not going anywhere without Mia." Duke said firmly.

"What would she say?" Audrey asked him shrewdly. "What did she say to you before she pulled away?"

"She said Croatoan wanted to use our connection against me and she begged me not to let her." Duke admitted unhappily. "But I can't just leave her with him."

"We won't stop looking for her." Nathan promised, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder and looking him in the eye to impress his sincerity on Duke. "I swear."

Duke turned away from them all and punched the wall, cracking the drywall and bruising and scraping his knuckles.

"Don't let it hit the ground!" Nathan warned as blood welled on Duke's hand. He covered it with his other hand, his anger rising that he couldn't even vent his frustration with a little mayhem anymore.

"I've got it." He said brusquely. Audrey went over to him and put her hand on his shoulder, radiating sympathy.

"I don't want to go either," she told him quietly, "but I think they're right. You do too or you wouldn't be so angry."

Duke sighed and gave in to the inevitable.

"Find her." He ordered Dwight and Nathan.

"Promise." Nathan agreed, his hand over his heart. It should have been utterly cheesy but somehow Nathan made it sincere.

"You got it." Dwight added a beat after Nathan. "She's important too."

"Fine. Then let's do this."

"Wait." Audrey protested. "How do we know when to come back?"

"Give us three weeks?" Dwight suggested. "Then return on the south highway – someone will be waiting for you. If we aren't ready yet, they'll tell you."

"We'd better be ready by then." Nathan observed darkly. "Because Haven will probably be running out of vital supplies by then."

"Yeah, that's all this situation needed." Duke groaned. "A time limit…"

"I'll drive you to the fog wall." Nathan told them. "Soonest is best. Croatoan is bound to try and stop us if he figures out what we're doing."

"Yeah." Duke found himself staring to the north and a little west of where they were. "She's that way." He told them, pointing.

Dwight and Charlotte remained behind to get a security detail set up on Charlotte so she could work on the parameters of the new barn while Dwight focused on finding the aether stash and keeping the new troubles under control. Far too soon for any of the occupants of the Bronco Nathan pulled up in front of the fog wall, behind an abandoned white car.

"Be safe." He told Duke before turning his attention to Audrey. "Keep an eye on him." He told her with a tinge of black humor. "You know how he gets when he's hurting."

"Be careful, Nathan." Audrey replied, pulling him into a long kiss with more than a little desperation in it. "I expect to find you here in three weeks."

Then acting on the conviction that it was better to rip the band aid off quickly, Audrey pulled herself away from Nathan and took Duke's hand. Duke didn't look back, he just walked into the fog wall without hesitation. Audrey looked back once before the fog engulfed them, hoping with all her heart that she'd made the right decision.

Back in the basement of an isolated yellow farmhouse on a bluff overlooking the ocean, Mia felt her brother's amusement at all of their attempts to thwart him and her heart sank further.

 _"Do you think I don't know how each and every one of you will react?"_ He taunted her silently. _"I've been watching you all – even you, dear sister."_

Mia rolled over in the bed and pulled a pillow over her head in a futile attempt to block her brother's malicious pleasure. Tears dampened the other pillow on the bed. Her brother held the upper hand and they both knew it, but Mia wasn't going to give up. She wasn't going to tamely sit by while her brother used her against Duke and Haven. She loved Haven as much as any native of the town. She'd been here longer than any of them and she felt an almost maternal possessiveness for this tiny concentration of humanity.

" _If you love them then you'll help me bring Audrey around."_ Her brother urged, his mental "voice" insidiously practical. _"I'll take her and return to our world and show them all what aether can do. I'll leave your little hamlet alone."_

 _"And Duke?"_ She asked, hating herself for even considering it. _"What about him?"_

" _I have use for him – he'll go with me. But if you behave I'll let you come too. He'd like that, I think."_

Mia sat up in the bed, clutched her knees to her chest and rocked back and forth, crying and arguing with herself. Save Duke? Fight for Audrey? What the hell was she going to do? In the back of her mind she felt her brother's amusement and satisfaction. He was quite happy that he hadn't killed her know – this emotional torture was almost enough to satisfy his sadistic streak.

Deep, deep down in her mind Mia constructed a bunker and in that bunker she sat and plotted while the superficial, emotional persona on the surface agonized over the choices she had to make. Cal knew her, yes, but he knew the "her" of 600 years ago. He didn't know how much she'd grown while surviving on this primitive planet, nor did he know how deeply she'd learned to love her short lived spouses and children. He hadn't changed in the Void. He was still the same petulant, vicious, vengeful narcissist he'd been her entire life: The big brother who had hated her for being born, for taking the attention away from him, for being gifted in the mental abilities. So she gave him what he wanted; her pain and grief and most of all, the image of her helpless against his scheming. And deep in her mind she settled down to figure out exactly what it is she could do with this trouble Mara had foisted on her. She was going to save Duke, _and_ Audrey, _and_ Haven and she was going to eliminate the threat of her brother once and for all.


	3. Chapter 3

Happy Endings Three

Audrey and Duke emerged from the fog and started off down the street. Neither spoke for the first hour they hiked. Audrey was worried about Nathan, and her mother, and Haven in general. Duke was worried about Mia and simmering with resentment that yet another "destiny" had arisen concerning him. He was fed up with fate and predestined paths and most of all, with being used.

"Okay, I've got to sit for a minute." Audrey finally said, plopping down on a convenient boulder by the side of the road. They hadn't seen a single car although they'd passed several side roads so there was hope they eventually would have a chance to catch a ride.

Duke stopped and sat next to her as the boulder was big enough for two butts.

"I feel like we're going the wrong way." He said glumly.

"I know what you mean." Audrey agreed; her face set in unhappy lines. "I don't like going the opposite direction from Nathan. We're stronger together."

"I just feel like I could help find Mia and I don't like running away and leaving her with him."

"Duke, you realize you _just_ met this woman less than 48 hours ago?" Audrey pointed out. "What's the deal with you two?"

"I don't know." Duke shook his head in confusion. "It's kind of like it was when I met you. There was an instant connection. I think that if you hadn't fixated on Nathan when you were Sarah we would have…"

Audrey smiled.

"Yeah, I think you might be right." She agreed with a bit of nostalgia. "But I'm not entirely sure we would have been good for each other in the long run."

"The Barn would still exist if it had been me you said your final good bye to." Duke pointed out grimly.

"And I wouldn't exist anymore," Audrey said, unsure by now if that was something to regret or not. So many had died since the Barn had imploded…

"I just…" He sighed in frustration. "I _need_ her to be safe." He said, returning to the original conversation.

"Can you still sense her?" Audrey asked curiously. Duke thought, feeling around in his mind.

"Just barely. She's very unhappy, I think, but not hurting or anything."

Audrey placed a sympathetic hand on Duke's arm.

"They'll find her, Duke. Nathan and Dwight are very good at their jobs."

"They have a Haven full of brand new troubles to deal with now, thanks to me." Duke argued. " _And_ they're trying to find that damn aether. _And_ there's the problem of just who and where this Croatoan monster is…"

"C'mon, Duke." Audrey stood and tugged on his arm. "Let's get going before we talk ourselves into returning. No matter what I think about being with Nathan, I also think he's right. Us being gone from Haven is a good idea right now."

"We should reach Overton in another hour or two." Duke said, rising reluctantly and starting out again. "I know a few guys there. Maybe I can get us some temporary jobs and a place to stay. That way we won't be too far from Haven."

"Yeah, well when we return to Haven we're going to drive." Audrey grumbled. "I didn't sign up for all this hiking."

When they finally reached Overton they were in for a nasty surprise – Duke's contacts had no idea who they were and as far as the rest of the world was concerned Haven didn't even exist. Audrey managed to land a job as a waitress in a truck stop and Duke found a garage willing to hire him under the table. But when Duke returned to the truck stop to collect Audrey that evening, she had forgotten who he was! He almost got arrested before he could convince Audrey he wasn't some creepy stalker and finally managed to get her to remember Haven and him. Fortunately for him, not even a trouble could make Audrey forget about Nathan and once he got her to realize that she had no clue where Nathan was, even though she loved him and he loved her, she finally opened her mind up to the possibility that Duke was telling the absolute truth.

"So, no more splitting up." Duke observed sourly after Audrey's memory returned.

"That's going to make survival a lot more problematic." Audrey pointed out.

"You think?"

"If only this didn't affect me too."

"I'm pretty sure that's what Mara was going for."

Neither of them slept well that night, in spite of their exhaustion. In the morning they agreed that either they both worked the same job or Audrey would just hang out while Duke worked. They presented themselves at the garage and Audrey's blond good looks ensured that she could stay, although Duke had to explain that she had brain damage and couldn't be left unattended. Audrey shot him a look that promised retribution but Duke was fine with that as long as it meant she didn't forget him the minute he was out of her direct sight. Audrey seated herself on a cushioned stool in the corner and watched Duke work, drumming her fingers on her leg, both bored and miserable.

In Haven Dwight and Nathan were trying to calm the troubles that Duke had released while still keeping Haven functioning. People were being "frozen" all over town and there was a narrow corridor of Haven that was filled with the troubled. Every trouble that went off seemed to trigger three or four more. Nathan and Dwight had a brief but intense argument about priorities with Nathan arguing that they owed it to Duke to find Mia and Dwight insisting that they had to restore order first. Dwight won that argument.

They survived the first few days with fewer casualties than the number of troubles seemed to call for but they were so busy running from one outbreak to the next that there was no time for anything else – like searching for Mia. Nathan ruthlessly suppressed the guilt he felt for letting Duke down because he knew there were no good options. And then the power plant went out…

Nathan, Charlotte, Kira and a few others formed a group to traverse "Trouble Alley" to reach the power plant. People were now dying in the dark and they were furious that they'd been kept in the dark about the troubles for so many years. Dwight and Nathan found themselves fighting this anger as much as the troubles.

Nathan brought the "Rougarou detector" Seth had created ages ago on their expedition. It detected aether and he hoped it could help them narrow down the search for William's stash. He was driven to create a new barn as soon as possible and end the troubles once and for all. He still battled guilt for destroying the old barn and leaving Haven struggling under the onslaught of a trouble cycle that never ended – and he felt personally responsible for every death that had occurred since the day he shot Howard.

In the yellow house on the bluff Mia spent hours and hours just staring out the window in her "living room". She barely ate, barely slept, and was the picture of abject defeat but deep in her mind she was working. Drawing troubles, or aether, from other people wasn't the only ability she had. She wasn't sure if it was a result of the injection of Duke's blood or a side effect from pulling the troubles from Duke as he exploded but she had more troubles than she was going to be able to quickly identify and learn to use.

Mia knew that her brother had a connection to her – the same connection he had to Duke and Audrey and Charlotte. He had stolen Jennifer's trouble and could "touch" anyone who had ever been in the Void. She believed she could block him but doing so would alert him so she left her mind vulnerable – but that meant he could spy on her at any time. So Mia created a surface persona for him to spy on and did her best to make it both believable and still one that satisfied her brother's need to torment her. And she studied her new abilities and practiced, as best she could, the ones that she hoped would serve her best in this war against her brother.

She knew she mustn't use her connection to Duke but her subconscious apparently disagreed because one night she found herself sharing a dream with him.

 _"Hey, I'm okay."_ She said, coming up behind him in his dream. He was standing on a bluff, looking over the ocean. She could feel his desire to be out there, sailing away on the Rouge, free from all this.

" _This is a dream."_ He replied, ignoring her hand on his shoulder. She moved to stand next to him, enjoying the breeze and the smell of the ocean and the cries of the birds.

" _Yes but it's really me."_

 _"How?"_

 _"We're connected, Duke, on a very deep level. I can't stay long – if my brother realizes I'm here he'll use it to hurt you."_

 _"Why are we connected?"_

Duke finally looked at her and she read his frustration and mistrust.

" _It's complicated, Duke."_ She tried, desperate to reassure him and get away.  
 _  
"Tell me!"_ He demanded.

" _Okay."_ Mia drew in a deep breath. _"We're connected on several levels, Duke. You are a descendant of mine and that is a connection. You have been in the Void via the Barn, which is another connection. And you and I are…"_ her voice trailed off as she realized there was no quick way to explain the biological drive that connected the two of them.

 _"Yes?"_

He prompted.

 _"This isn't the time. I can't stay long enough for this conversation."_

Mia looked him in the eye, trying to will him to trust her. _"I just need you to know that I'm all right at the moment and you and Audrey are doing the right thing. Stay here until it's time to return and try not to worry about me."_

 _"Mia, don't you dare leave me hanging!_ "

Duke growled.

 _"Duke, I promise you that there's no special "destiny" between us and I'll explain in detail when we're together again. Be safe!"_

She told him earnestly _._ She could feel his anger but she knew that this communication had been risky enough. Taking the kind of time she would have needed to explain everything was just impossible.

 _"And don't kill anyone, Duke!"_ She urged him. _"It makes my brother's grip on you stronger."_

She wasn't sure if he heard her but she knew she didn't dare press her luck. Her brother wasn't spying on her right now but he could be at any moment. She rose, showered, and dressed. She managed to choke down some dehydrated (rehydrated?) eggs. Then she paced the suite of rooms over and over again, checking the view from the windows in each room compulsively and pulling her hand from her mouth over and over again as her agitation pulled her into chewing her nails – a habit she had broken centuries ago.

He'd be coming soon. He had left her to stew since depositing her in this place but he wouldn't be able to resist tormenting her in person much longer. She hoped to get more information from him about his ultimate plan and then – well then she could figure out what she needed to do.

But, perhaps just because he sensed her distress and was enjoying it too much, he made her wait two more days. She emerged from the bedroom into the kitchen to find him waiting, coffee in hand, one morning. He smiled benignly – an expression that failed to warm his eyes.

"Morning, brother." She murmured, pouring her own cup of coffee and adding the powdered creamer he had provided for her. "How's your evil plan going?"

"Now that hurts me." He chided gently and with patent insincerity. She joined him at the table and sipped her coffee, watching him patiently.

"I'm here to give you a chance to cooperate." He said when he felt the silence had stretched on long enough. "I'll get what I want either way but Duke will be far easier to manage with your help."

"And what is it you want Duke to do, exactly?"

"Collect troubles for me." He answered as if it were obvious. "That is what I created his line for."

"You mean kill for you."

"That too."

Mia's hand clenched her coffee mug so tightly the fingers were white at the knuckles.

"I can't." She told her brother after wrestling with her conscience. "Duke isn't a killer – well, not a wanton killer like you, at least. I won't be a party to pushing him into that role. It would destroy him."

"Oh, you'll help me – willingly or not." Her brother assured her coldly.

He reached out and touched her forehead. Her mind spiked with agony as he forced the psychic "back door" to her mind open and locked it open to him. In response she sealed her strongest connection to Duke – closing it completely and hiding it from her brother. She and Duke wouldn't be having any more telepathic conversations until that channel was reopened – if it ever was – but he could still sense her emotions and vice versa. Then she struck back at her brother but in a way he hadn't anticipated.

One of the troubles she had discovered had been attached to a dissociative state – originally it split copies off from a person who was avoiding strong emotions – and those copies lived out the emotions being avoided. Mia knew that Dave didn't want her brother in his head, the strongest sort of disassociation possible, and that was all the opening she needed. In an explosion of white light everything in the room that wasn't fastened down was blown around and Dave and her brother split into two different people. Dave slumped bonelessly to the floor and Mia dashed to his side to reassure herself that he was still breathing.

While her back was turned to her newly freed brother he struck, knocking across the small room with a single blow. She didn't even try to rise, dizzy with pain and fighting off the attempt to infiltrate her brain that Croatoan tried immediately following the blow. Normally he'd have had no chance – Mia's mental abilities had always been superior to his - but he was fueled by centuries of rage and a formidable store of aether and she was losing the battle until Dave regained consciousness and hit him over the back with partially destroyed kitchen chair. Mia teleported the two of them out of the basement in a desperate move that nearly knocked her unconscious in her already weakened state. Supporting each other, Mia and Dave fled the yellow house on the bluff. Dave knew where they were and guided them as Mia focused all her energy on remaining conscious and mobile.

In Overton Duke started awake, far earlier than he normally would have, calling Mia's name.

"What?!" Audrey jerked awake.

"I can't feel her! She's gone. We have to go back!"

"Wait, Duke!" Audrey grabbed his arm as he started flinging clothing into a bag. "Don't be hasty."

"She needs me, Audrey." He protested.

"Didn't you tell me that she came to you in a dream and said she was all right? That we were doing the right thing?"

"Audrey, she's gone from my mind. She could be _dead_."

"Duke, think about this." Audrey soothed. "Don't be emotional, just think about it."

"Audrey, she could be dead."

"Do you really think she's dead?"

Duke shook his hand free and paced the dingy room, hand running through his hair as he thought.

"No." He said at last. "I think we're just – disconnected."

"Well then, that might just be a good thing. Now you can have some space to figure out just who this woman really is to you."

"Audrey, I'm worried about her. Croatoan has her and we know what he's like…"

"Yes, we do. If he has her and she's still alive then there's a reason for that – what do you think that reason is?" Audrey asked him patiently.

"She's bait," he admitted reluctantly, "for me."

"Right. So if you go charging back to Haven then Croatoan doesn't need her anymore, does he?"

"Damn!" Duke slammed the palm of his hand against the door frame to the tiny bathroom.

"So we go on?"

"We –" Duke cut off mid sentence, his eyes darkening to black.

Audrey froze in terror. Was Duke about to explode again? But as the moments passed and nothing happened she relaxed slightly, watching Duke closely. His eyes closed, relaxing her further, and she could see them twitching under the lids, almost as if he were dreaming. Audrey retrieved her gun from where she had hidden it between the mattresses of her bed and waited to see what Duke would be when he opened his eyes again.

 _"Duke, so good to see you my boy – so to speak."_

The voice in his head was relaxed, confident, and striving to sound utterly reasonable. Duke wasn't relaxed by it in the slightest.

 _"What have you done with her?"_ He demanded.

 _"Straight to the point, no nonsense, I like it!"_ The voice chuckled. _"She's fine. I've got her safely contained far from the heart of Haven and all those dangerous troubles you released before she interfered. And she'll stay fine as long as you play your part."_

 _"Play what part?"_ Duke asked warily. He knew he wasn't going to like the answer.

 _"Why, Haven's savior, of course! Once I have the troubles I need for my work we'll leave your charming village in peace."_

" _As long as people are troubled "peace" isn't going to exist in Haven."_ Duke countered bleakly.

 _"You bring my daughter back to me and help me collect the troubles I need and I promise to end the troubles in Haven once and for all."_

 _"Without killing the troubled?"_

The silence that greeted that question exuded irritation. Obviously Croatoan had hoped that Duke wasn't clever enough to think of the obvious loophole.

 _"Very well. Your cooperation is worth a little extra effort."_

 _"And Mia?"_

 _"My dear boy, she'll be at your side!"_

Duke considered this, deeply torn. He could get the troubles out of Haven – everyone would have their lives back...

 _"Think about it. I'll even give you a week. I have a few loose ends to tie up as it is."_

Duke took a deep breath and opened his eyes to find Audrey watching him cautiously with her gun trained on him.

"You can put it away." He told her tiredly. "I'm still me."

"Oh Duke!" She reengaged the safety and put the gun down before going to give him a hug. "What happened? You don't look happy."

"Croatoan made me an offer I'm not sure I can refuse." Duke answered.

Audrey's eyes narrowed with worry.

"Explain." Audrey asked Duke levelly but with clear concern.

"He wants us back in Haven. He says that if we come back and help him that he'll remove the troubles without hurting anyone and leave Haven alone forever after."

"Help him with what?" Audrey touched unerringly on the heart of the issue.

"He didn't say but I think it's got to do with revenge."

"And you think we can trust him?"

"Well, he's your father…" Duke said with a remarkable lack of conviction.

"No, he's _Mara's_ father – and we all know what a gem she was."

"Trustworthy too." Duke agreed sourly.

"So we _don't_ trust the bastard, right?" Audrey prompted firmly.

Duke ran his fingers through his hair and sighed a silent acceptance.

In Haven Mia and Dave stumbled into the police station, both the worse for wear, and Nathan reported back that he'd found William's aether stash not far from the power plant. Mia and Charlotte made plans to check it out after they had a chance to catch everyone up on the latest developments with Croatoan and recover. And Dwight returned to his modest home that night to find his daughter waiting in a dark living room.

Mia strongly suspected that her brother was stepping up his timetable and wondered why. Whatever he had planned, it was clear to her that she had somehow put a crimp in things. Now if she could just figure out how because she was very much afraid that they were going to need every possible advantage to defeat him…


	4. Chapter 4

Happy Endings Four

"Duke," Audrey suggested as the silence between them stretched to a ridiculous level, "why don't you try calling Nathan?"

"Ahhh, because you tried it already and it didn't work." He replied irritably.

"Yeah, but you're immune to the shroud trouble and I'm not. Maybe it will work for you." Audrey reasoned, hanging on to her patience by her fingernails. Duke's defeated attitude was beginning to irritate her – in addition to frightening her.

Duke glared at her, not because she was wrong but simply because his level of frustration with life was reaching meltdown levels. Then he pulled out his phone and dialed – and almost dropped the phone when it actually rang.

"Duke?" Nathan's voice on the other end was so welcome that Duke's eyes stung with tears.

"Yeah, it's me." He answered after clearing emotion from his throat. "How is everything in Haven?"

"Mia's safe with us in the station." Nathan answered, covering the unasked question first. "We're coping with the new troubles so far and I found William's aether stash."

"So Audrey and I should return now?" Duke asked eagerly.

"I'm not sure yet." Nathan cautioned. "Croatoan is still in the wind but he's not in Dave anymore."

"Wait… What?!" Duke exclaimed. "What do you mean –"

"Remember when Dave almost fell in the Void? Well, that cut on his leg was Croatoan's doing and somehow it let Croatoan hitch a ride in Dave's body. He's been the one killing people. But Dave's himself now and Croatoan is running around in a new body, thanks to Mia."

Nathan sounded like he wasn't sure if he was happy or not with that development and Duke couldn't blame him since he was conflicted about it himself.

"Is she okay? Did he hurt her?"

"She seems fine." Nathan reassured Duke. "She and Charlotte are going to go check out William's aether stash later today. But we have another problem. We need the control crystal to recreate the Barn but the crystal is in the Void and all the thinnies are sealed."

"I thought Charlotte sealed those – can't she just unseal them?"

"No. We think Croatoan sealed them against everyone but him."

"When we deal with this we need to make sure every thinnie in the world is sealed forever. I'm sick of these otherworlders coming here and screwing with us." Duke growled.

"Agreed, but in the meantime we need to figure out how to get into the Void and retrieve the power crystal."

"And me and Audrey?" Duke asked pointedly. "She forgets me and Haven if I'm out of her sight for longer than thirty seconds. It's made life pretty interesting."

"Seriously?"

"No one remembers Haven out here, Nathan. I can't access my money in my bank accounts or anything. Do you have any idea how hard it is to convince an employer to have your girlfriend hang around the place watching you work?"

"Girlfriend?" Nathan asked pointedly. Duke sighed and waited.

"Hang on a second – let me see what the others think." Nathan took the phone away from his face and pushed the "mute" button.

"He wants to come back. He says no one remembers Haven out there and Audrey forgets us – and him – if she's out of sight of him for longer than a minute."

"If there's enough aether to form an aether core I'm going to need her help to do it." Charlotte offered hesitantly.

"Croatoan still wants them both." Dwight argued, shaking his head doubtfully.

"But if we need Audrey…" Nathan countered.

"We do." Charlotte put in, more forcefully.

"And Duke's immunity to these new troubles could only help." Nathan continued. Dwight was clearly less than pleased but finally nodded his acceptance.

"Okay, we're agreed." Nathan told Duke as soon as Dwight nodded. "Make your way back here."

Duke sighed with relief. "We'll be there in a few hours." He told Nathan. He disconnected the call and turned to share the news with Audrey when a knock sounded at their door. He groaned, knowing there was no way this was going to be a good thing.

In Haven Nathan looked around at the others as he pocketed his phone.

"He'll be here later today he says."

Mia closed her eyes briefly, worry and joy combating each other. Charlotte gave her hand a comforting squeeze and looked at Dwight with a mixture of sorrow and guilt. Dave just slumped wearily on the couch in Dwight's office, Vincent sitting next to him with worry etched on his face.

"Once he's here what do we do?" Dwight asked irritably. "Is it going to change anything?"

"With Audrey's help we'll create an aether core to power a new barn." Charlotte reminded him. "And Duke can only be an asset to you with his immunity to the new troubles."

"And none of that does any good without your controller crystal which is inaccessible in the Void – right?" Dwight pressed.

"We'll figure it out." Nathan soothed. "We always do."

Stan knocked on the door and then opened it without waiting for acknowledgement.

"We've had three different reports of dead bodies – all with no marks and blue eyes." He announced as soon as his head cleared the door. "Just thought you would like to know."

And Kira's fiancé, Tony, pushed past him to accuse Nathan of murdering Kira. The meeting quickly devolved into chaos until Vincent came up with the idea of a trial with the population of Haven deciding Nathan's fate. Tony was only mildly mollified and insisted that the trial begin as soon as those interested in participating could be gathered. Dwight took Stan and headed out to spread the word. Mia and Charlotte gathered together the supplies they would need in the mineshaft where Nathan had found the aether. Before they left he pulled them aside and revealed that Kira was there too, trapped by a fallen rock.

"So be careful." He finished. "Look out for each other. I don't want to have to answer to either Dwight or Duke if one of you doesn't come back."

"Send Audrey to us as soon as she gets here. We'll wait for her." Charlotte told Nathan. "And be careful yourself. Someone is clearly working hard to divide us – taking you down is just the first step."

Nathan nodded with a grim smile – at least the power had returned so people would be safe until morning when darkness finally fell. He hadn't cared much about his survival since the barn had imploded and he realized that he had caused the troubles to remain instead of ending for the next 27 years like they were supposed to.

Audrey and Duke, meanwhile, were listening intently to the brunette teen who had knocked on the door to their hotel room.

"I found your name in my dad's papers." She was saying. "It wasn't easy tracking you down but I'm desperate. Dad left some pretty big bills with some pretty nasty people and his journal said you owed him. I'm hoping you'll help me."

"What kind of help do you need?" Duke asked, cutting to the chase.

"Thirty thousand dollars will do it," the girl answered, watching Duke closely for his reaction. Duke shook his head sadly.

"Normally I'd give you the money, kid," he told her in response to her crestfallen expression. "But I can't access my bank accounts anymore."

"They got frozen?" She asked, showing more cynicism than Audrey expected.

"Something like that."

"Why don't we take her with us to Haven?" Audrey suggested. "No one will ever find her there since no one remembers it exists."

"What's a "haven"?"

"It's the town you were born, Hailie." Duke told her. "I was there so I remember."

"I've never heard of a town called Haven – not in Maine, at least." Hailie answered doubtfully.

"And that's why no one will find you there." Audrey said briskly. "So let's pack up and get moving."

"We have to stay together." Duke warned both of them.

"Fine." Audrey retrieved her gun from the bed and holstered it under the light jacket she wore. "I'm packed."

"What about you, kid?" Duke asked Hailie.

"Everything I care about is in my duffel." She shrugged the shoulder she'd slung the duffel over in illustration.

"Then let's move out."

Duke led the way out of the hotel room and took them to the parking lot of a nearby bar. Even though it wasn't even noon yet there were several cars parked out front – one of which was a snazzy black sports convertible, with the top down. He grinned like a kid in a candy shop and hopped over the door into the driver's seat. Audrey slid in next to him and Hailie made herself as comfortable as possible in the backseat – her duffel next to her. In a matter of moments Duke had hotwired the vehicle and they were on their way back to Haven, not a moment too soon in Duke's opinion.

What had been an all-day hike took a little over an hour in the sports car, possibly in part because Duke pushed her to her limits every place he thought there'd be no police cars to spot them. It was still before noon when Duke took Audrey and Hailie's hands and walked them through the fog bank that neither saw until he grabbed their hands. Hailie gasped with amazement and then inhaled sharply when they were through the fog and her childhood memories of Haven returned.

"How did I not remember this place?" She wondered aloud. "We lived here until I was eight!"

"Weird stuff happens in Haven." Audrey explained briefly. "And we've got to get to the police station and Nathan."

"Call him." Duke suggested sensibly. "He might not even be there."

Audrey pulled out her phone, her expression eloquently expressing her frustration at not realizing that she could now contact anyone in Haven she wanted to call. When Nathan answered she heard the murmur of many voices in the background and asked him what was going on.

"We're having a meeting." Nathan answered quietly and evasively. "You need to head to the old copper mine by the power station – Duke should know where it is. That's where William's aether stash is and Charlotte said she needs your help with it."

"Nathan, what aren't you telling me?" Audrey demanded, recognizing evasion when she heard it.

"We'll discuss it later, go meet up with your Mom. We need the aether core to create a barn."

"This conversation isn't over, Nathan Wuornos." Audrey told him firmly. She didn't see Nathan's smile but somehow she felt it.

"I've missed you, Parker. I'm glad you're back."

"Yeah, me too."

She disconnected the call and informed Duke and Hailie about events. Nathan was correct and Duke knew exactly where they needed to go. It wasn't terribly far from where they had entered Haven, in fact, and Duke led the way cross country with Hailie and Audrey following along behind.

In the mine Charlotte and Mia had found Kira and the aether. Charlotte was crestfallen, there wasn't nearly enough aether for a core but Mia was preoccupied with freeing Kira and healing her damaged leg. By the time Mia had teleported the stone to the other side of the room and repaired the damage to Kira's leg Charlotte had discovered the abundant aether stash in an adjoining room and Duke, Audrey and Hailie arrived. It was the work of moments for Charlotte to guide Audrey through the process of refining the aether into a core. Mia watched carefully, amazed by Audrey's affinity for the aether and the ease with which she manipulated it. A plan that had been simmering in her mind crystallized in that moment and as soon as she finished her work Mia called her and Duke to her.

"Charlotte, why don't you and Kira get Hailie to the police station? I think she must be about ready for something to eat and a break."

Charlotte raised an inquiring brow at Mia but nodded and ushered the other two women away when Mia merely smiled blandly at her. She shot her friend a look that promised a reckoning, however.

"Both of you need to listen to me, okay?" Mia began as soon as the three women left. "My brother will be attacking us soon – I can sense his intentions through the channel he put in my mind."

"Then aren't you a security risk?" Audrey asked, spotting the logical drawback.

"No. I'm far more experienced in mental abilities. He gets nothing from the link but my most negative emotions – it keeps him happy." She added cynically. "When he finally comes out into the open it's going to take all three of us to neutralize him. This is what we're going to do…"

As Mia spoke she partitioned Audrey and Duke's memories of the conversation behind a temporary wall. Her brother shouldn't discover what she had planned until it was too late. As soon as the other two understood her plan she ushered them out of the mine and after Charlotte, Kira and Hailie. They never even noticed the missing time because Mia left them memories of searching the mine for any more aether to explain staying behind.

The group made it through Trouble Alley and back to the station just as night was falling and Nathan's trial was winding up. Mia and Charlotte held Audrey back as Nathan made it clear to Tony that he was the person responsible for the darkness trouble. The trial pretty much fizzled after that and the women, and Duke, entered the station at last. And that was when Croatoan finally made his move.

Duke shuddered and a dark smoke enveloped him. Mia, alerted by her connection to Duke spun on one heel as Duke grabbed Hailie by the throat, his eyes totally black.

"Let her go, Duke! Don't do this!" She cried, pulling on his arms. He ignored her.

"Duke, it's me." She tried again, ducking under his arm and putting herself between him an Hailie. As she moved she threw open the door in her mind that she'd sealed to try and keep her brother from Duke's mind. His grip on Hailie slackened slightly and his gaze drifted down to Mia.

"Yes, Duke, it's me. And this isn't you. You don't kill children. You don't kill for someone else's power. You're a protector, Duke, not a murderer. Put her down."

Slowly his fingers opened and then he grabbed Mia by the throat as Hailie scurried back. Mia smiled at him and put a hand on his cheek, ignoring his grip on her throat.

"You don't want to hurt me, Duke." She choked out as his grip tightened. _"Fight him!"_ She urged mentally as a roaring started in her ears.

"Duke!" Audrey cried urgently. His fingers loosened slightly again and Mia was able to draw shallow breaths. "Duke this isn't you!" Audrey continued. "You don't take orders from anyone."

"This is my destiny." He answered woodenly, but Mia was inside his mind – a mind clouded by black smoke – and she knew that wasn't Duke. Duke was…

 _"Duke! Duke!"_ Mia dove through the smoke to the trembling core in Duke's mind – his essence which was all but crushed by accusations and negativity her brother was throwing at him. Mia's psychic presence knelt beside Duke's essence and she threw a shield around the two of them, fending off what seemed like a cloud of malevolent black ghosts.

 _"Come on, Duke, you're stronger than this."_ She urged him and slowly Duke straightened. His "hands" gripped hers convulsively.

 _"That's it. You aren't alone, Duke. Don't listen to him."_

 _"Mia?"_ His eyes cleared.

 _"It's my brother. We need to strike back, now. He's got to be in the room with us to do this to you. Are you ready?"_

A fire lit in Duke's eyes as he realized just what had happened to him. His jaw firmed and his lips thinned and he nodded once. Mia smiled encouragingly and dropped the shield. To Duke it seemed like she exploded in a golden light but when the light faded the smoke in his mind was gone. To the observers it just looked like his eyes flickered from black to gold and then back to their normal warm brown. He released Mia's neck but pulled her close to him with one arm around her shoulder.

"Show yourself!" He shouted and the crowd parted slightly to allow an unremarkable, middle aged man to make his way to the space around Duke, Mia and Audrey.

"So, here we all are at last." He said with an oily smile.

"Indeed we are." Mia agreed and teleported the four of them to the street outside the station. The people in front of the station who had been following Nathan's trial through loudspeakers Dwight had rigged started and backed away, leaving them in a circle.

"Last chance, Duke. Spare yourself a pointless battle – and save my sister in the process. I'll mold her mind just the way you want it. You'll have the perfect mate."

Mia shot her brother a disgusted look.

"It's time, my loves." She told Duke and Audrey, unlocking the memory of their plan with those pre-arranged words. "There's something you don't know, brother." She snarled as her hand formed into a claw in front of his face and aether-smoke began flowing from his mouth, eyes and nose.

"Stop! You can't do this!" He choked.

"I can. I will. You killed my _daughter_!" Mia's voice rose to a shriek and the smoke pulled from Croatoan even faster. Audrey stepped up beside Mia, collecting the aether balls that were shooting from her palm like bullets from an assault rifle. They began to form a globe and one by one the black balls turned golden.

"Love, brother," Mia gritted out, sweat dotting her forehead with the effort she poured out. "You never understood it but it's going to destroy your vile plans."

"Duke!" Audrey gasped. He stepped up to her and Audrey placed her hand on his chest. He grunted as golden aether poured into him. His fists clenched and the tendons on his neck were clearly visible as he fought to contain what Audrey was siphoning into him.

"No, Dove, you don't understand!" Croatoan cried out. "I did it for you! I love you!"

"Mia's right – you don't know what love is." Audrey told her father, panting with the effort of transmuting so much aether. "But Mia does, and Duke does, and I do."

Duke's chest and face glowed golden. His eyes were lit up like a solar flare.

"Now, Duke!" Mia collapsed onto the ground with her brother.

Audrey held on a few moments longer, feeding the last of the golden energy into Duke but she fell to the ground the moment the last bit of light had fled. Duke trembled, the golden glow now lighting him from the waist up. Then, with a primal yell, he thrust his hands over his head and the golden light erupted from his hands, chest and face in a column that shot straight up for hundreds of yards before spreading out like an umbrella. The light went on for several long moments before flickering out – Duke fell to one knee. A rain of golden motes began to fall on Haven and as it touched the people faces filled with despair and fear began to smooth and ease. Smiles flickered on faces and then settled in. Someone laughed and a child began to dance in the falling golden light, making a game of capturing the motes.

Duke and Audrey and Mia sat up as they were coated in the healing energy. Nathan helped Audrey to her feet and pulled her into an embrace and Duke did the same with Mia. Stan handcuffed Croatoan. Dwight and Charlotte found themselves locked together in a kiss that promised healing between them. The shroud shivered and vanished and then voices cried out in fear that transformed into joy as every person who had died since the shroud had come into being suddenly appeared on the streets with their loved ones. Mia buried her head against Duke's chest, tears stinging her eyes.

"Hey, we won – why tears?" He asked, tipping her chin up.

"So many lives lost – my girl…" Mia whispered. "If only…"

"Hey, "if only" is a useless phrase." Duke told her. "Trust me, I know that one."

He turned to a tried and true remedy for tears and pressed his lips to hers. She responded with a hunger born of grief and relief she hadn't processed yet. They vanished from the street, reappearing on the deck of the Baton Rouge.

"I like your teleportation thing." Duke said with a smile.

"Well, I promised you an explanation and I thought it would be nice to talk in private."

Duke's smile slid off. He'd almost forgotten that there was still the matter of this strange connection between the two of them.

"Sit." He gestured to one of the lawn chairs on his deck, seating himself in the one next to it. "I'm listening."

"You know that our people are long lived." Mia began. "But we weren't always. When longevity was first unlocked we had a huge population explosion – so alterations to our hormone balances were programmed into our population. And our population plummeted, almost to the point of extinction."

Duke was listening with his full attention but obviously mystified as to the point.

"So another alteration to our genome was made. When individuals with complimentary qualities – qualities which would improve our species – meet, well certain hormones and biological drives turn on."

Duke looked at her blankly.

"Oh Duke, come on, you're smarter than this. You were attracted to my niece, my daughter and me – you and women of my genome are compatible. Biology has activated."

"Wait – this is…"

"It's no different than the hormones of your average teenagers – only we're adults and we can walk away if we want. But yeah, basically my biological programming wants to procreate with you." Mia grinned and shot Duke a look through her lashes. "And my mind thinks you're sexy and intelligent and fascinating and sweet…"

"But why am I affected by this? I'm a human being."

"You're the product of many generations – some of whom have been my offspring. In many ways you are more of a hybrid of our two peoples than the Halflings are. Apparently you've got enough of our biology that you are affected by certain drives."

"But I loved Jennifer!" He protested.

"Of course you did." Mia agreed. "She was one of the most loveable people ever produced."

"It wasn't some biological programming!"

"No, Duke, it wasn't. All the programming provides is the attraction. Without genuine feeling it won't really go anywhere."

"You said that this wasn't another destiny."

"It's not. It's biology and biology is not "fate"." Mia assured him. "You walked away from me and into the shroud – you can walk away now. I can walk away. Whatever happens between us is _our_ choice – not destiny, not fate, not predetermined."

Duke jumped up and started pacing, his go-to when processing information and emotions.

"Why did you give Jennifer up for adoption?" he wanted to know.

"We were on the beach when my brother killed James. He saw us. I had to protect her. I got Howard to arrange her adoption far from Haven. I thought she would be safe." Tears swam in Mia's eyes as she explained.

"You must hate me for bringing her back to Haven."

Mia got up and stood in front of Duke, halting his pacing and grabbing his arms.

"You loved her." Mia told him, maintaining eye contact and willing him with everything she had to believe her. "I love you for that."

Duke looked away, a muscle in his jaw jumping as his hands clenched and unclenched repeatedly.

"I didn't protect her."

"You did." Mia argued fiercely. "And you supported her. And you did everything in your power to keep her safe. You aren't to blame for what my brother did."

Her hands slid up his arms to cup his face. Reluctantly he looked down at her.

"The only question here is what do you want, Duke? Shall I walk away?"

"What do you want?" He countered, floundering as emotions assailed him. Guilt over Jennifer's death and all the other deaths he'd had a hand in, anger at a new form of manipulation, fear of loving only to lose it all again – and a stubborn hope that just once he could have a happy ending. Mia smiled slowly and lifted onto her toes to whisper into his ear. An answering smile crept over her face even as a hint of a blush colored his cheeks.

"I might be able to make that happen." He agreed when she settled back down on her heels. "But –"

Mia cut him off with the simple expedient of pulling his face down to hers for a heated kiss.

"No buts." She told him fiercely. "You want this or you don't. Which is it?"

"Both." He told her honestly.

"Choose." She ordered him, practically bouncing with impatience. Another smile crept across his face.

"Why don't we go inside and you can present your arguments in favor?" He suggested. Mia's bouncing stilled and she reopened the connection between them – the connection that she had been keeping closed since the moment her brother had been defeated.

"You mean arguments like this?" She asked, sending everything she was feeling to him through that link.

Duke's eyes lit - her feelings were undeniable and it was clear that biological imperatives had nothing to do with what she sent to him.

"That works." He said slowly, his voice husky with emotion as healing began on a heart that had been battered and bruised for far too long.

Mia took his hand and led him into the living quarters of the Rouge, never letting up on the emotions she was sending through the link.

"Do you believe me yet?" she whispered as he shut the hatch behind them.

"Yes." He answered simply. He pulled her close.


	5. Epilogue

Happy Endings  
Epilogue

Haven was almost new again. The people who had been bathed in the golden aether were either untroubled or they found they had useful abilities which they controlled rather than being at the mercy of their emotions. These useful abilities had helped enormously in the rebuilding of damage caused by the troubles released by Duke, and that was fortunate because the world was aware of them again.

Charlotte and Audrey had entered the void and retrieved the control crystal, encountering William along the way. It took some doing but mother and daughter finally convinced him that Mara was gone for good. Knowing that nothing waited for him on their world, William accepted Audrey's suggestion of a new personality – one that could do some good and perhaps bring some redemption after all he'd done.

"Do what you did to Mara." He told Charlotte. "Not an overlay personality – just wipe "William" out. I don't have anything to live for with her gone. I burned all my bridges for her."

Charlotte agreed, feeling remarkably guilty about William's pain. In all honesty she'd never considered his feelings for her daughter – she just resented his participation in her daughter's misguided actions.

Croatoan also received a personality overwrite, not voluntary on his part but everyone agreed that even in a completely human body – which Mia had given him – he was simply too dangerous with his memories and malice. Audrey came in for her share of guilt when she explained their decision. He once again protested that he'd done it all for her but she held firm that all the lives lost and ruined weren't something she could forgive. So Croatoan was now Calvin Jenkins and he was a new math and science teacher at Haven High. William was now William Thompson, the newest pediatrician at Haven Memorial.

The people who had miraculously returned from death in the golden rain had no memories of their deaths and their presence made Haven's return to the mainstream of life easier. Howard, under Charlotte's direction, created a new facility modeled on Vince and Dave's old fishing shack and all the troubles that existed outside of Haven that hadn't been transformed by Duke's healing explosion were drawn from their hosts and vented back into the Void. And Howard was in the process of sealing all thinnies to Earth, a somewhat time-consuming process because not all of them were known by Charlotte, William and Croatoan. Mia had only known of the one in North Carolina that she had come through.

Nathan was Chief again. Dwight was working with Vincent's contacts to make sure Haven's infrastructure was completely up to modern standards.

Charlotte was working at Haven Memorial as a general practitioner but she continued her research in her free time. She had questions about the interaction between the genetics of her world and Earth, which had been mixed enough times to produce Duke. And she was deeply curious about those who had been touched by the golden rain. She was trying to determine if their abilities were going to be passed on, as the troubles had been, and was creating another census about who did what and why. Audrey shocked everyone by resigning her place on the force to help her mother with her research. Their relationship was growing as the two women got to know each other better.

Duke closed the Gull for a night and invited Gloria, Dwight, Nathan, Charlotte, Audrey, Vince, Dave and a few other close friends for a celebration and an announcement. After good food and a few drinks he stood, tapping on his whisky tumbler for attention.

"Haven is safe now." He announced when everyone's face was turned to him. "The troubles are gone and gas leaks are a thing of the past."

The group chuckled.

"So Mia and I are going to take off."

Audrey gasped slightly but Gloria nodded knowingly.

"It's not forever." He assured Audrey. "I need to personally deal with some of my more questionable business associates."

"Wouldn't that be all of them?" Nathan asked, his mouth turned up on one side in a wry grin. Duke rolled his eyes.

"And I'm going to develop _un_ questionable business opportunities. When we return, and we _will_ return, I will be as respectable and boring as… well, Nathan."

"That'll be the day." Nathan scoffed.

"True – few can dream of reaching your level of boring." Duke zinged back.

The party broke up after that. Gloria hugged Duke and told him not to be a stranger and went back to Aaron. Vincent and Dave told him to swing by the office for a list of folks to contact on their voyage.

"We've wanted to turn some of these ventures over for some time but the right person never showed up." Vince told Duke.

"So I guess we'll have to settle for you." Dave joked.

"Thanks guys." Duke replied with a small smile.

Dwight and Charlotte just wished Duke luck and Charlotte and Mia exchanged hugs.

"Take care of her." Mia told Dwight. "She's special."

"I agree." Dwight said, taking Charlotte's hand possessively.

And then it was Audrey's turn – and she hugged Duke fiercely with tears glittering in her eyes.

"Don't be gone too long." She told him when she finally released him.

"I won't." He promised.

"Keep in touch." Nathan said laconically.

"Get over here!" Duke grabbed Nathan in a bear hug which Nathan returned after a token resistance.

"I'll miss you." Nathan offered seriously.

"I'll keep in touch." Duke told him, lips twitching. "Someone has to make sure you know how to police a place with no troubles."

"I'll strive to struggle on without you."

And then it was just Duke and Mia. She went to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Happy?" She asked him.

He considered. Something Mia loved about him was that he tended to think before answering her questions.

"I am." He said with a trace of surprise. "I'm happy."

"Good."


End file.
